Business Owners: 10 Steps On How To Be Found Online

You own a business.

You know about Small Business Saturday.

You have an online shop.

BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO FIND YOU.

Deep breath. It’s common.

You are going to have to do a little work on your end to get the ball rollin’. Once that happens, people will catch on.

The good news? It’s all free.

10 Steps To Getting Your Business Seen This Small Business Saturday

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MAKEOVER: Make sure you have all of your social media accounts updated with your current logo (or look), your website, a good tagline or your store’s mission.

2. HASHTAG YOUR ASS OFF: Start using (or teach yourself) the hashtags #SmallBusinessSaturday and/or #SmallBizSaturday. This is what people can and will be searching for on Saturday. Plus, it gets you into the mix of all the other people doing the same thing. Hashtags work on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

3. SEARCH AND CONNECT: While you’re on social media, start searching for hashtags that apply to your product or brand. Do you sell clothing from an online boutique? Start searching #leggings #fashion #whattowear #sweater #gifts. Once you find people who have pinned, tweeted or put on Facebook about something you have – WRITE A COMMENT!

4. PROMOTE YOURSELF: Don’t be shy. This is a time for self-promotion. There’s no shame in this game. In order for your business to be successful, it has to be promoted so people know you’re here. Ask anyone and everyone to get the word out about your business.

5. BLOG: Whether you do it regularly or you remember only during times like now, write a blog. You don’t have to do in depth research, just write about what you know – your business. Include many keywords, include the words Small Business Saturday and start off your blog with a quick summary of what the blog is about. Think of how a news article is written.

6. SPRUCE UP YOUR SITE: Take a peek at your website. Is it easy to figure out who you are? Can people navigate quickly? Can they read the text? Have you included an “about me” section so people know who they are shopping with? Did you explain what you sell and why it’s the best? Do you have a “contact me” section? Do you mention shipping? All of these things are important for the new customer to know. Remember, you are very familiar with what you do but not everyone else is.

7. DISCOUNTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS: Offer a discount. Give something, anything. Perhaps you have a special gift you can add to purchase or maybe you can offer customers a discount for shopping with you on Saturday. We all love a discount…especially this time of year.

8. SHOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT: Be active. Post pictures of what you have available online. Post it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, the home page of your website, your forehead, the neighborhood, the mall Santa. WHEREVER!

9. PIN IT ALL: We’re convinced that Pinterest is magic. If you don’t have it already, add a Pin It button to your website. Just go to Pinterest and an option will become available to you (or you can look in the top menu bar of Pinterest for more). If you make a Pin It button available, others will do the work for you in spreading the word about your business. Let their passion speak to their network. This is an invaluable way to be connected with people you wouldn’t have had an opportunity to connect with otherwise. You can also pin everything from your site. We’re all in a hurry so if we can find what we’re looking for quickly, you’ve become our best friend.

10. START A GANG: Enlist the help of others you admire. There are a ton of very successful small business owners. In fact, I’d argue you can’t even call them a small business because they are doing so well. That’s the magic of the game. They technically still qualify and are kicking serious ass doing it. Ask for help. Ask for tips. Ask if they will help you grow by giving you a mention. Does that make you nervous? There are two things that would be the absolute worst case scenario: 1. You don’t get a reply. 2. They say no. Those don’t seem so bad, do they? Get to it!

See how impactful #SmallBusinessSaturday is and read even MORE suggestions

on how to be active in promoting yourself. Find it HERE.

Side note: Take a look at this blog post that you just read. Do you see how many times ‘Small Business Saturday’ was mentioned? Do you notice how many “keywords” are used that got your attention as a business owner? Do you see how you’re reading this right now?

We attracted you. Now go attract others and tell us who you are so we can follow you!

This is a fun game, isn’t it? Congratulations on your future success! We’ll be playing the role of emotional parents applauding you from the sidelines.

I Don’t Read Blogs

I don’t read blogs, I read email.

Sound familiar?

I can’t find enough time during the day to hop around to different blogs to read updates. If I could, I would. I’m missing out on some really cool ideas, personalities, stories and inspiration.

I hate missing out!

Google reader has been available for some time. It allowed you to just log into your Google account and see all the blogs you follow. That service is no longer available after Monday (thanks for the reminder Mama Laughlin). See what you can learn from following blogs?

Have you heard of Bloglovin’? Cheesy name for a really cool and simple-to-use program. It’s a way to get updates from your favorite blogs in email form. Not a billion emails…just one.

Here’s what you do:

Head on over to www.bloglovin.com
Create an account for free
Search for blogs you love (if you already know of some you like) such as organizedCHAOSonline. Just sayin’.
Whenever you happen upon a blog you like, look for the “bloglovin” image or clickable link to add to your list (image can also look like this and appear in a group of social icons like we have at the top right of the blog).
Wait for your daily email and do literally nothing but read what they send you.

It’s so easy and you get just ONE email a day. Have I mentioned that, yet? No junk or overloaded inboxes, here.

If you are familiar with following blogs and you are one of those people who are freaking out a little about losing the blogs you already follow? Gimme Some Oven posted a detailed (and also simple) how-to list.

Now that you’re all set up, test it out by following us. If you don’t like it, you can unfollow.

How to Get Your Business Seen Online – Step-by-Step Instruction

We were so excited, and so spent, after completing our new book, “How to Get Your Business Online” that we posted it on Pinterest, our website, Instagram, etc, but totally forgot to introduce it to you. Duh! We’ve spent months pouring our blood, sweat and tears into this resource guide for you, the small business owner. Drawing from the mistakes we’ve made in the past starting our own businesses, we’ve compiled a ton of detailed instructions and resources to help you get your small business up and running including tips to get your business seen online.

Editing, editing editing…

The more we edited, the more content we added. Our goal was to have “How to Take Your Business Online” be the only resource you’ll need to get your business up and running. While writing this guide, our focus was on providing solutions to obstacles that may be preventing your business from having an online presence.

After months and months of development, we finally completed what we think is a totally kick-ass business start up guide. By the time “How to Take Your Business Online” was finished, our little guide had turned into sixteen chapters!

Formatting, formatting, formatting

Our book is written in layman’s terms, not techie language. It’s written for the normal, everyday, limited computer-skilled business person. Even if you spend very little time on the computer, with the help of this guide, you can still get your business online, set up and be active on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, and learn how to market your business, completely on your own, all for zero dollars!

We are so proud to present…

How To Take Your Business Online

a simple guide written in layman’s terms

Featuring…

Step by step instruction on how to get your business started TODAY on a $0 budget!
Sixteen chapters of simple, easy to follow explanations with lots of visuals
Packed full of downloads, printables, and resources!

The entire book is beautifully formatted for printing, including cover and section dividers. Print your pages and put them in a 3-ring binder to keep at your desk. You’ll find you’ll refer to the hundreds of resources provided in this book over and over again.

The Online Business Start-up System eBook includes everything you’ll need to take your business online.

Get it TODAY! We promise you won’t be disappointed!

[spacer size=”20″]

Instant Download only $9

[spacer size=”30″]

For more details and a look at some sample pages, visit the eBook section on our website HERE.

If you have business start-up questions, please ask them in the comment section below. We love questions, and we love hearing from you. We reply to ALL comments.

Come join our Facebook community, and then pop on over and visit us on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading our blog. We just love ya!

Fight Feeling Stifled at Work by Blogging

In a perfect world, you’d wake up each morning, do what you love and get paid gobs of money for doing it. You wouldn’t have to deal with office drama, feeling bored and dreading that inevitable Monday morning.

That’s not possible for many of us. So, what do you do in order to not go bat sh*t crazy in the corporate world?

Have you thought of blogging?

What is blogging?

It’s a web log. Shorten the words and smoosh ’em together and youv’e got yourself a weblog.
It’s a form of networking. You write, you share and people read. That’s the most simple way to put it.

You’re reading a blog right now.

Who can blog?

You. When you’re at work thinking of all the things you’d rather be doing, what’s at the top of your list? What do you want to rant about? What makes you feel empowered?

What kind of blogger are you?

According to Zemanta.com, there are 7 types of bloggers:

HEDONIST: Hedonists promote different lifestyles to enrich people’s daily routines. They are emotional and are not afraid to express feelings or reach out to others.
TECHIE: Techies don’t get much satisfaction from the writing process, but enjoy spreading their word, sharing knowledge and educating.
PROFESSIONAL: Professionals present accomplishments and seek feedback from their followers. For them, blogging is all about making connections.
PREACHER: Preachers enjoy sharing content and interacting. They are all about studying content, presenting key viewpoints and opening a platform for further discussion.
LIFE IMPROVER: Life improvers share know-how, give support and instruct people how to improve their life.
BEAUTY HUNTER: Beauty hunters create or promote beautiful things, educate others and exchange opinions.
LIFE STAGER: Life stagers are focused on life task situations, such as parenting, student life, marriage, senior life, etc. They are focused on emotional benefits of blogging. They search for help or they want to share their experience and make someone else’s life easier.

More of a visual person?

What should you name your blog?

To figure out a name, you can use your own (that’s easy) or you figure out what your blog is going to be about.

How do you figure out what you want to write about?

Think about this: When you want to escape or just get away from it all, what do you resort to? Crafting? Organizing? Talking with friends? Research?

Whatever your answer is probably describes your passion. Your passion is likely what you’re great at…naturally.

Now you have your subject and can come up with your name.

How and where do you start a blog?

Starting a blog is free. Now that you’ve discovered your name (ish), you can go to any of the following blog options (they are listed with the first three being the most popular) and get started.

We listed our 4 favorites and have enlisted the help of LifeHacker to explain our favorites.

WordPress is a popular open source blogging platform along the lines of the venerable Swiss Army knife.

Blogger is a popular and free blogging service owned by Google. Blogger’s big draw is ease of use and nearly instant setup. You can go from blog-less to publishing your first post in under 15 minutes thanks to its extremely easy setup process.

Tumblr is an interesting fusion between a full-fledged blog and a Twitter feed. Known as short-form or micro blogging, the style of blogging on a Tumblr blog is focused on short and frequent posts that are normally longer (or more focused on media like images or video) than Twitter updates but not as involved and formal as a regular blog post.

Posterous aims to be an absolutely no-fuss and zero-stress way to blog. You don’t need to sign up, you don’t need to know any code, you don’t need to know how to do anything but send an email to set up your own Posterous blog and start sharing your ideas and media. Simply email from any email account and Posterous will create a YourName.Posterous.com blog for you.

In conclusion:

Don’t let the at-work boredom consume you. Take control. You can be a better person for everyone else if you take a moment to let out your passion!

Want to turn your blog into a paying business?

It’s all in our “Take your Business Online” eBook HERE. Instantly download today.

Once you get going, share your blog with us! We wanna read!! Have one already? Comment below by telling us what your blog is about and include the link!

This post has been linked to the GRAND Social linky.